THE Trophee Hassan II returns to the Royal Golf Dar Es Salam course for the third year in a row.
It is a Robert Trent-Jones design with average-sized tree-lined fairways and Kikuyu grass. The greens this year are all new and have been enlarged and run around 11 on the stimpmeter. Greens in Regulation and Putts per Round are the stats I'll be looking for.
- Course: Royal Golf Dar Es Salam, Red Course, Rabat, Morocco: 7615 yards, Par 72.
Paul Dunne
With his second-place finish last week my tip Paul Dunne lived up to expectations after his recent results. In American he finished 8th in the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship in Mexico at the end of March and 5th at the Houston Open a week later.
He looked very solid at the Open de Espana but couldn’t hold off the power of home hero Jon Rahm. He hit 66, 65 and 68 before a final round of 71 but a 67 saw Rahm claim the title by two.
In this tournament last year he was in a play-off with Italian Eduardo Molinari but lost with a bogey at the first extra hole. He will be favourite but the way he is playing it looks like he is not far off winning his first Tour event.
- GIR: 66.98% (54th). Putts Per Round: 28.3 (1st).
George Coetzee
For my second selection I’m going for Coetzee who also had a good Open de Espana finishing fourth after a brilliant 63 in the final round.
His form recently has been good (8-1-4), winning the Tshwane Open two weeks ago and a credible T8 at the Qatar Masters. He is 48 under par in that run with nine sub-70 rounds.
Since the start of 2017 Coetzee has 11 top-10 finishes bettered only by Tommy Fleetwood (14). After the Qatar Masters he took a month of and it didn’t seem to affect the South African as his finish in Madrid showed.
His stats are good for here and just like Dunne his putter is hot so I have no hesitation in selecting him.
- GIR: 72.4% (24th)Putts Per Round: 28.6 (6th)
Recommended Bets
- 1.5pts ew Paul Dunne (Coral, 12-1)
- 1.5pts ew George Coetzee (William Hill, 18-1)
Aaron rai at 35/1 bet 365